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2012-2013 School District Budget
| PDF Documents 14 MB - posted 9/17/12
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Over the past several years, the St. Johns County School District has had its amount of funds per student decreased by the legislative allocation process. While budgets have been reduced, the District remains responsible for managing student growth, maintaining the constitutional class-size requirements, opening of new schools and most recently implementing the new teacher and administrator evaluation system district-wide.
Although the 2012 Legislature increased funding for St. Johns County schools by $10.1 million, the financial and economic pressures still facing the District are tremendous. Due to the continuing decline in property value and the legislatively reduced millage, revenues for the Local Capital Improvement Funds are projected to be $26 million, or approximately $642,000 less than the prior year. In comparison, the FY 07-08 Local Capital Improvement Funds amounted to approximately $47 million. This equates to an approximate 44 percent decrease in revenue sources for capital projects, while at the same time the number of students served increased by 4,449 from 27,737 students in FY 07-08 to 32,186 students in FY 12-13. Over the last five years, the Capital Outlay budget has lost access to more than $64 million. This reduced funding will jeopardize
our ability to maintain our existing schools or build new ones as needed. In addition, this decreased funding stream could negatively impact the District's credit rating and its ability to efficiently manage its debt.
Finally, Florida continues to be in the lowest tiers in terms of per student funding when compared to other states. As previously mentioned, the funding did increase for FY 12-13; however, the state has a long way to go to bring Florida K-12 funding to a comparable level as it was in FY 07-08.
To provide the reader a reminder of the budget cuts that have been implemented since 2006, we present the following actions:
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Eliminated more than 300 positions |
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Reduced energy cost by $2.5 million (current cost avoidance is approximately $12 million) |
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Controlled the cost of the District's benefits package |
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Delayed textbook purchases |
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Reduced school operating budgets by 25 percent |
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Reduced department operating budgets by 30 percent |
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Reduced contractor payments by more than $500,000 |
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Reduced the number of Youth Resource Officers in our schools from twenty-one to nine |
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Provided no raises or operating salary schedules for four out of the last five years. |
These reductions have allowed the District to stabilize its operations since 2006 and to accumulate needed reserves to help balance our budget for the next two and a half years. If there is no recovery in the state's economy and/or in the emphasis K-12 education receives from the leadership of our state within the next 24 months, public education in St. Johns County will face significant reductions in services for our students in 2014-2015 or sooner.
The District's revenue and expenditure budgets have changed significantly since July 2011. Highlights are as follows:
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State & local funding has increased by approximately $10,170,421 |
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Per student funding has dropped from $7,202.43 in FY 07-08 to $6,275.61 in FY 12-13 |
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Edujobs funding has ended. The change has increased our expenditures by $6,343,155 |
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Student population is projected to grow by 2.7 percent or 845 students |
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As a result of state funding, student growth, the loss of the Edujobs money and other downward pressures on the budget, the District will use approximately $18.5 million from its fund balance to sustain school operations during FY 12-13 |
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The FY 12-13 budget will provide 53 additional instructional staff units |
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Approximately $1.4 million in recurring costs is needed to fund the opening of Palencia Elementary School in August 2012 |
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Florida Retirement System rates will increase to 5.18 percent in FY 12-13 from 4.91 percent in FY 11-12 |
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An outstanding lawsuit being held in the Florida Supreme Court that could culminate with the District being held responsible for the 3 percent FRS contribution that the Legislature mandated be held from employees' paychecks. In the event, this were to come to fruition, it could cost the District in excess of $4.2 million. |
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The District's capital and maintenance expense budgets will need to be restricted since the District is currently growing at 2.7 percent or 845 students per year with a declining revenue stream. In fact, the FY 07-08 capital fund generated approximately $46.8 million. The same capital fund will generate only $26.3 million in FY 12-13. This disparity is due mainly to the continuing negative impacts of declining property values as a result of the housing market collapse as well as the economic meltdown of recent years. In addition, the Florida legislature reduced the allowable millage levy from 2.0 mills to 1.75 mills in FY 08-09 and then again to 1.5
mills in FY 09-10. It currently remains at l.5 mills for FY 12-13. For the foreseeable future, capital and maintenance must be prioritized with a focus on critical needs only. The District will be forced to move away from being prepared for growth and using preventive maintenance in order to minimize costs, to only meeting critical needs. A backlog of growth and maintenance needs (deferred maintenance) will develop. |
If the District does not see a leveling or improvement in per student spending for the 2013-2014 school year, it will be necessary to again reduce operating and capital expenditures budgets so there is not an emergency when our fund balance is exhausted.
Past performance is a good predictor of future performance. To review our past financial performance, please visit our web page at www.stjohns.k12.fl.us. If you visit the District's web page and click on Financial Transparency, you will find detailed information about our financial activity.
On the following pages, you will find the details supporting this year's budget and detailed discussion of local taxes, (The 2012 Proposed Millage), a brief look at the Florida Education Finance Program and several pages that examine each fund's revenue and expense.
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